Software reference architectures: related architectural concepts and challenges

Software reference architectures provide guidance when designing systems for particular application or technology domains. In this paper we contribute a better understanding of developing and using reference architectures: First, we relate the concept of software reference architecture to other architectural concepts to help engineers better understand the relationships between software development artifacts. Second, we discuss several high-level (and mostly non-technical) challenges related to the design and use of software reference architectures. These challenges can be used a) to formulate research problems for future work, and b) to define software product and development scenarios in which reference architectures may be difficult to apply. Finally, we explore application domains that may benefit from established reference architectures, including concrete challenges related to reference architectures in these domains.